The graphical user interface (GUI) is the interface displayed on top of the player's view of the world. The interface features overlay information, HUD elements (such as the skill bar), and movable panels. It is primarily mouse-driven, but certain functions may be assigned keyboard shortcuts (some of which are bound by default).

Note: All keyboard shortcuts provided in this article are the game's default bindings.

All NPCs and player characters in the world have nameplates denoting various bits of information about them, including their name and level. For players, the number can be yellow instead of green, indicating the number of unlocked Masteries instead of their level. NPCs have their role displayed along with their name (such as '[Merchant]' ), whilst players have their current title, and represented guild name and tag displayed. If a player has attained world completion, they will have a small star displayed on their nameplate as well. A miniature healthbar is also shown.

Character nameplates are color-coded based on their relationship with the player character at that time:

Unless a character is selected, only the name and guild tag portion of their nameplate is displayed. Holding Left Alt displays the whole nameplates of nearby allies. Holding Left Ctrl displays the whole nameplates of nearby enemies. Options exist to have nameplates be shown all the time for enemies and/or allies.

Certain special or functional NPCs have an icon displayed above their head, regardless of whether they are selected. These include vendors, scouts, NPCs with roles in events, key personal story characters, and many others. Downed players and pets also have an icon displayed above their heads.

The currently selected target is marked with a small downwards pointing arrow above the head and a circle around the feet.

Targets may be called on selected NPCs and players with Ctrl+T, which displays a large red target reticle above their head. Other players may then switch straight to this target by pressing T.

Players can choose to display a Commander tag or Mentoring Badge above their heads to make it easier for other players to find and follow them.

During PvP League seasons players will have a badge next to their name depending on which division they're in. After a PvP season has ended, players will have the badge for the division they were in when the season ended.

The position and size of certain HUD elements can be changed. These elements include the chat panel and the compass. Both can be resized within certain bounds, and can have their positions swapped with other elements on the same respective sides of the screen.

The chat panel can be swapped with the party interface by dragging on the space to the right of the chat tabs. Drag it towards the party interface until a white rectangular outline appears. Then release the mouse button and the elements will swap places.

The compass can be swapped with the elements in the top-right corner of the screen in exactly the same manner.

The skill bar displays the icons of a character's currently equipped skills. Skills can be activated by clicking on their icon, or by pressing their assigned keyboard shortcut - which is displayed beneath the skill icon.

The weapon swap button (to the left of the skill bar) switches between the two equipped weapon sets. The feature is unlocked at level 15, but is not available to elementalists or engineers, who have access to attunements and kits respectively. It is bound by default to `.

After picking up a bundle (or other non-weapon items) the weapon swap button changes to a drop button. In addition, holding a bundle changes your available weapon skills (1–5). Clicking the drop button drops the held item and restores the currently equipped weapon's skills.

The red health orb divides the skill bar into two halves. It is a visual indicator of the player character's current health relative to their maximum health. The current health value is also displayed as a white number in the center of the orb. Hovering over the orb displays a tooltip showing the the character's current and maximum health.

The endurance bar is the yellow arc above the health orb. It shows how much endurance the player character has available for dodging. A player is able to dodge twice without waiting for endurance regeneration, which is indicated by the line through the center of the arc.

The experience bar runs along the entire bottom edge of the screen, beneath the skill bar. Hovering over the bar displays a tooltip showing the current progress towards the next level.

On the left end is the player's current level. This number is accompanied by the player's effective level in green, if the player character's level has been dynamically adjusted.

The amount of the bar filled with experience depicts the character's progress towards the item displayed at the right end of the experience bar. If the player character is below level 80, the right end of the experience bar shows the next level. If the player character has reached level 80, the experience bar shows progress on the current mastery track while playing Heart of Thorns material.

The compass shows an overhead view of various features centered around the player character. Locations obscured from above are are revealed after the character travels nearby - this applies primarily to underground and underwater passages. Zoomed in, the horizontal and vertical range of the compass is 4250 units and the diagonal range is 6000 units.

On the right-hand side are the following icons:

Zoom In - Zooms in by one notch.

Zoom Out - Zooms out by one notch.

Pan to Story - Pans the view of the compass to the location of the next personal story step.

Toggle Rotation / Pan to Character - Toggles whether upwards on the compass is always north, or the direction the camera is facing in. If the character is not in the central position on the compass, pans the view to the character.

The compass can also be configured to display a clock in the corner, either displaying local time or server time. Whether the clock is in 12 or 24-hour format depends on the system time settings - configured outside of the game.

The compass shares much of its information and graphical markers with the larger map interface. In addition to the icons shown on the world map, the compass also shows:

Many of the compass icons will display a symbol next to it to show the relative altitude between it and the player character:

˄ - Item is above player character, symbol appears to the upper right of the item icon.

˅ - Item is below player character, symbol appears to the lower left of the item icon.

Like with the world map, holding down Shift allows a player to ping points,or draw white lines by clicking and dragging with the right mouse button. Clicking on the compass while holding Alt will place a personal waypoint that displays an icon for the player and all party members, both on the compass and on the world map. Commanders have the capabilities of placing additional icons for their squad members to see.

Achievements can be displayed using the Watch List in the hero panel. If no achievements are selected and Daily Completionist has not be completed, daily achievements are shown depending on a player's current game type: PvE, WvW or PvP.

The target display is located in the top center of the screen and provides information about the currently selected enemy or ally. Displayed are the target's name, a portrait, current health, effects, level, rank,abilities and Defiance Bar if any.

Players can interact with each other by right-clicking their name or portrait in the target display, a member of a party, contacts, guild panel, or chat. This will bring a dropdown list of actions that can be done with the player.

There are a set of actions always available to players:

Whisper - Whisper the target player in chat

Join Party - Requests a party invite, either joining a party or someone joining your party

Send Mail - Mail the target player a message

Add Friend - Add target player to your friends list

Guild Invite - Invite the target player to your guild if you have proper privileges

Block - Adds the target player to your block list, you will not see what they say in chat and they cannot contact you in any way.

The chat panel contains a history of in-game chat for the duration of the login session. By default, it is situated in the bottom left corner of the HUD. If pulled upwards it will attach itself to the top left of the screen.

After joining a party, the party display appears on the top left and shows the avatars, health, professions, and levels of your party members. It also shows speech bubbles when party members send a chat message and effects currently on the party member.

To take a screenshot without GUI, either toggle the GUI with Control+Shift+H or press Control+Shift+Print screen for a single screenshot. This creates a normal quality JPEG. Stereoscopic (3D) screenshots can be created by assigning it to a keybind. The user may append "-bmp" to the command line to take all screenshots in the lossless bitmap format.